Day 4: Thirsty Again

Today’s Assignment is to read John 4. For more information on the Focus Bible reading plan, please check it out here.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

This is a portion of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:13-15).

The woman doesn’t understand it yet, but Jesus is talking about something a lot more vital and intimate than the water she is currently drawing from the well.

Jesus is using the water from the well as an example of something that satisfies temporarily and contrasting it with something that satisfies for an eternity.

In the moment, the woman was envisioning the convenience of a magical water that would save her the hassle of the trip to the well every day. But with time, perhaps she recognized how much greater the gift Jesus was offering her that of avoiding an annoying chore.

Jesus is offering her a way for her to escape her shame, her destructive habits, and her loneliness for a relationship with God himself: an opportunity for her heart to meet the purpose it was created for.

I wonder if after this encounter with Jesus, the woman thought back to this conversation and recognized the poignancy of her response: “Give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

We don’t know much about this woman, but Jesus did. He knew she had a past she was ashamed of, and that’s something we can all identify with.

The truth is, we all drink from wells that satisfy us temporarily but end up leaving us thirsty and ashamed.

We turn to relationships with people to fill our needs. We seek the approval and acceptance to give us satisfaction. We selfishly lust and objectify others.

“Jesus, give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

We worship ourselves and our own comfort. We self-soothe with food, alcohol, sleep, Facebook, and Netflix, all the while recognizing that none of it truly is quenching our thirst.

“Jesus, give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

We seek power, fame, money. We obsess about being in control, and then are filled with fear when we are faced again and again with our own frailty.

“Jesus, give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Not one other person, experience, ideology, or perspective will satiate the thirst of our souls. Only Jesus. Only him! All other pursuits will leave us thirsty again.

How wonderful it is that Jesus offers us living water. Water that will not only quench our immediate thirst but “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus, give us this water so we won’t get thirsty again! Help us to stop returning to the wells of sin and give me a spirit that wells up with eternal life. We want so much to be truly satisfied.